The John Curtis boys basketball team advanced in the Country Day Classic on Thursday, but Coach Mike Krajcer wasn’t exactly in the mood to celebrate.

Mississippi’s Hancock County looked more like itself after a sluggish start in an earlier game and gave John Curtis a test. In the end, though, the team that relies on spurts found enough of them to pull out a 76-68 win.

Krajcer stressed urgency and rebounds in a lengthy chat with his team after the game. Hancock held a 30-27 lead at halftime and stayed close with Curtis in the second half.

“Anytime you play a disciplined team, they always have a chance,” Krajcer said. “You got to be on your best and we didn’t come prepared to play. We allowed them to stay in the game. Some of the easy rebounds we should have went and got, we didn’t go get. We played like we were supposed to lose.”

With the win, the defending Country Day Classic champion is back in the semifinals. The Patriots (5-1) meet Country Day at 7 p.m. Friday. Issac Banks had 17 points and Malachi Dupre had 10 of his 14 points in the second half. Twelve players scored in the game.

Late in the third quarter, the Patriots started to score in bunches, but they needed to. Hancock’s James Thompson made a running jumper to cut John Curtis’ lead to 39-38 with 2:25 left in the third quarter.

Racko James and Kai Morgan then both made 3-pointers. Morgan’s 3-pointer from the right baseline finally sent the John Curtis fans to their feet. Donte Jones also scored off his own steal.

“If they get two or three turnovers in a row, it’s going to be a run,” Hawks Coach Charles Moore said. “We let them run too long. I let them run too long, but the kids still didn’t let it get out of hand.

“I know there was a feeling we weren’t supposed to hang with them. The calls (against us) turned the game.”

Senior 6-foot-2 guard Conner Entriken picked up his fourth foul with 5:44 left in the third quarter. He was whistled for a push, but Moore didn’t see it. Entriken still finished with 15 points. Matthew Rawls added another 14 points.

The game also slowed nearly to a crawl late in the game as both teams were whistled for more fouls. The game featured three technicals, two of which were called on Hancock. The Hawks also had a player ejected late in the fourth quarter.

Krajcer said if his team didn’t play sloppy, it wouldn’t have been called so tightly. He wants to see his team play better from the start Friday. John Curtis typically plays Country Day in a playoff warmup every year.